“Well, that’d be US$1 a meter. He might go for it. Then you’d have money left to use to title the property if you decide you want to.”

“Right…and maybe I won’t worry about it. I’ll fix the house up, and it’ll be a great place to stay when we want to go fishing.

“If you really think I could get the place for US$8,500, that’d be tremendous. Other places I’ve looked at that could work as a fishing getaway have been US$200,000 and more.”

“Yes, well, you need to understand. You can have problems with rights of possession property. You need to be careful. Still, US$1 a meter…you can’t beat that…”

I continued to swing back and forth in my hammock, eavesdropping in silence.

I offered no comment to the two gentlemen speaking at the table across the patio from me. I kept my opinions to myself as I swung in my hammock…but I’ll share them now, dear reader, for your benefit.

Right…rights of possession property can cost a fraction as much as titled property…but there’s a reason for that. To say that you “can have problems with rights of possession” is understating the reality.

You can purchase rights of possession property, but you don’t own it. You’ve bought the right to possess the property. But, if you treat it like it’s yours…investing in improvements, building a house on it, making plans related to its long-term use…you can have a real shock one day when you show up after some absence to discover someone else living in your house, enjoying your improvements, and making his own long-term plans related to the property’s use.

Rights of possession land isn’t uncommon in parts of Panama, specifically Bocas del Toro, for example, and, we’re discovering, out here on the western coast of the Azuero Peninsula. Nearly every gringo owner we’ve met this weekend has an ROP story to tell.

Not all land in this part of the country is ROP…but there’s enough of it that you want to understand the distinctions before you make a purchase. In fact, you want to understand the difference between ROP and title before you even begin shopping.

“I’ve learned my lesson. I just don’t believe anyone, not any attorney, certainly not any real estate agent,” explained one American we spoke with who’d invested in a couple of pieces of ROP land near Torio about three years ago.

“My attorney insisted all along that I’d be able to have the property titled. I went through the titling process, filed all the paperwork, paid all the fees…then my application for title was returned with a big “Denied!” stamp on the front. No reason that made any sense…simply denied. Now I have no idea what to do.”

In fact, sometimes, ROP land can be converted to titled property. Meaning that buying ROP can be one of the best ways to buy for investment, because, as the gentleman sitting across the patio from me last night pointed out, the cost can be a fraction the cost of comparable titled land. Buy for US$1 a meter…successfully convert the ROP to freehold title…and you can turn around and flip for many multiples of what you paid.

The key, of course, is to be really, really sure you’ll be able to convert the ROP to title. To make that determination with confidence, you need the counsel of an attorney who knows what he or she is talking about and who has experience dealing with ROP issues.

Kathleen Peddicord

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Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.